Laser technology is making rapid advances in heart disease treatment. Lasers have been used to clear clogged heart arteries during coronary bypass operations. Direct laser energy has been used point-blank during bypass surgery. Lasers have also been used for treating a more common problem, clogging of the arteries that feed the heart muscle itself.
One laser system involves controlled delivery of laser energy through a fiber-optic cable threaded through a patient's leg and up to the narrowed heart vessel. A metal tip or probe at the distal tip of the fiber-optic cable is heated by the laser energy passing through the fiber-optic cable. The temperature of the probe is controlled by the amount of laser energy delivered thereto. As such, there is controlled thermal delivery of laser energy without the direct application of laser energy to unrelated tissue. Instead, tissue effects are limited to the surface immediately surrounding the area of contact with the probe, and the area to be treated. Thus, there is a predictable, controlled, and uniform tissue effect.
An essential element in this system is the fiber-optic cable that is used to deliver laser energy to the probe. The fiber-optic cable consists essentially of a relatively thin flexible cable, up to five meters in length. Such a fiber-optic cable is fragile, is easily abused, and is difficult to store because of its bias toward a straight line in a relaxed position.
Because of its delicate characteristics, packaging for such a fiber-optic cable must protect the full length of the cable against damage. Such packaging for a fiber-optic cable should also meet the following criteria. Any container or dispenser for a fiber-optic cable should hold a coil of fiber-optic cable in the largest diameter possible while fitting into a conventionally dimensioned chevron pouch. Such a package must allow all of the cable to be completely withdrawn, tangle free, from either side of the package. After installing a probe or connector on a cable end, either end of the fiber-optic cable must be easily replaceable into the package for storage for future use and without causing entanglement. Because of its medical usage, the cable package, along with the cable therein, must be easily and completely sterilizable as in a suitable sterilized bath or atmosphere. Additionally, the package should be easy to use and understand.